William Winchester Chapter, NSDAR

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The William Winchester Chapter, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, (NSDAR or DAR), was organized on December 28, 1938, and has 67 members. It is currently the only DAR chapter in Carroll County, Maryland.

He was born in London, England, in the borough of Westminster on December 22, 1720. He came to the colonies as an indentured servant and arrived in Annapolis, Maryland, in 1729. In 1764, he purchased a tract of land called White's Level, about 1000 acres, and laid out the city of Winchester. The Maryland General Assembly later changed the name of his town from Winchester to Westminster to avoid confusion with the town of Winchester in Frederick County, Virginia.

In 1774, he was elected as a committee member for a session of the Continental Congress that met in Frederick County, Maryland. Too old to fight, he contributed guns and ammunition for the American Revolutionary War. After the war started, he donated land at the end of Church Street for a site to be used as a meetinghouse. In 1790, the area surrounding the meetinghouse was used to bury the dead.

William Winchester died September 2, 1790; he and his wife Lydia and children are buried in the area surrounding the meetinghouse which is now known as the Westminster Cemetery.